Originally Posted by Tianna-Fae

I use a fish tank of water as a practical way of visualising and demonstrating the process of the individuation of consciousness while retaining its essential unity, and I'll try to describe it here.

Imagine a large tank of water, to keep it in easily visualised terms. This water represents pure Consciousness in its essential form.

Take a clear plastic cup or glass and dip it in the water until it is nearly full, then float it on the surface of the water in the tank. The cup or glass loosely represents your physical body and / or mind, which separates your consciousness (in the glass) form the consciousness in the tank.

In this state, the cup/glass represents the newborn state. The consciousness in the glass is separated from the Universal consciousness by a thin physical barrier. The individual consciousness in the glass has very little, or no, awareness of the greater consciousness outside of itself. Indeed, in this state, it might even deny the existence of any consciousness outside of itself.

Drip a small amount of ink or food colouring into the water in the glass. This ink or food colouring represents your individual life-experience, which colours your individual consciousness.

Finally, gently tip the glass, emptying it slowly back into the tank, and then safely dispose of the cup/glass. The coloured water will remain in a cloudy state, retaining its colouring/experience, before eventually merging back into the whole. Emptying the coloured glass into the tank represents the death of the physical body; the removal of the physical barrier between the Individual Consciousness and the Universal Consciousness. The individual life experience merges once more with the whole.

I hope this small visualisation helps you understand it a bit better.